Building corner construction and unit therefor



36. D. G. UNDERDOWN zfl s Aug. 18, 19

BUILDING CORNER CONSTRUCTION AND UNIT THEREFOR Filed June 17, 1935 INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS Patented Aug. 18, 1936 UNETED STATES BUEDING CORNER CONSTRUCTION AND UNIT THEREFOR Donald G. Underdown, San Francisco, Calif.

Application June 17, 1935, Serial No. 26,981

Claims.

This invention relates to the art .of building construction and particularly to the construction of corners in masonry walls.

An object of the invention is to provide a cor- 5 ner construction for masonry buildings that is pleasing in appearance, inexpensive and. has great structural strength.

Another object of the invention is to provide a corner building block or unit for forming the corners in masomy walls.

In my copending application Serial No. 682,607, filed July 28, 1933, I have disclosed special forms of building blocks for use in walls. Those blocks were particularly characterized in that different adjacent blocks incorporated fins which cooperated to define vertical passages, into some of which concrete was poured to tie the different blocks together. The wall construction disclosed in that application incorporated separate inside and outside blocks but the corner construction incorporated single blocks. The corner construction which is the subject matter of the present invention diifers from that disclosed in the prior application in that it provides for two cooperating corner blocks, one defining the outer wall surface and the other defining the inner wall surface. The two blocks have cooperating fins defining vertical passages, some of which may receive poured concrete to tie the blocks together and others of which constitute air pockets for sound, heat and moisture insulation.

A complete understanding of the invention may be had from the following detailed description which refers to the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a wall including a corner showing the manner of constructing such corners from blocks in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a view in perspective of the block forming the outer surface of the wall disclosed in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the block constituting the inner surface of the wall shown in Fig. 4 is a sectional view in the plane IV--IV of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a portion of a Wall illustrating the manner of employing the inside corner blocks disclosed in Fig. 3 to join a partition wall to a base wall.

Referring first to Fig. 1, I have disclosed therein a wall corner construction comprising an inner block I and an outer block 2 positioned in juxtaposed relation and defining the inner and. outer exposed surfaces of the wall. These blocks have smooth outer surfaces 3 and 4, respectively, defining the inner and outer surfaces of the wall. As shown more clearly in Figs. 2 and 3, the blocks I and 2' have projecting from their rear surfaces 5 fins 5, the inner edges of which abut, as shown in Fig. 1, to define closed vertical passages 6, I and 8. In Fig. 1 only one course of blocks is shown.

It is to be understood, however, that there will be other courses of blocks above and below the 10 blocks shown and that the passages defined by the blocks in the other courses will be in alignment with the passages 6,. I and 8 shown.

The passages I are preferably poured full of concrete to tie the inner and outer blocks .I and 15 2, respectively, together. The outermost fins 5 in the two blocks are spaced inwardly from the outer ends 9 of the blocks and, together with the portions Ill of the blocks projecting therebeyond, define trough shaped passages II, 'as 20 shown in Fig. l, which are also adapted to be filled with concrete. It is to be understood that f Fig. 1 is only a partial view of a wall and that in actual construction the passage II would be closed by an adjacent building block or masonry 25 and the concrete. in the passage II would not be exposed as shown in Fig. 1.

The pair of fins 5 on each straight. wall portion of the blocks I and 2 are outwardly 'fiared with respect to each otherso that the outer surfaces I2 on the end fins define an angle of less than with the rear surfaces I0 and likewise the inner surfaces I3 of the inner fins define angles of less than 90 with the adjacent surfaces M of the block. With this construction, when the 35. passages I and II are filled with concrete as shown in Fig. 1, the fins are locked in the conof the fins 5 would be sufiicient in many instances 40- to produce a wall of ample strength. 1

However, to further strengthen the wallcom struction I prefer to provide reinforcing rods I5 in the blocks I and 2. These rods I5 are imbedded in the blocks a fixed distance from the face sur- 45 faces thereof, the. distance being substantially equal to the end portions. III of the blocks, which portions are thinner than the portions back of the faces I l. As a result, the rods I5 are quite deeply imbedded in the mid portions of the blocks 50 but are exposed beyond the outer faces of the end ribs 5 so that they can be bent away from the blocks at those points whereby they become firmly imbedded in the concrete in the spaces I I. To further insure that the blocks will be tied to- 55 gether at all times, the ends of the rods I 5 in the inner and outer blocks I and 2, respectively, may be bent about each other and twisted together as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1.

In order to reduce the weights of the blocks l and 2 and to provide ample air space between the two blocks in the passages 8, the inner surfaces of the blocks between the ribs 5 are curved, as shown at It in Figs. 2 and 3, and made relatively thin at the bottoms of the curved portions. However, it is desirable to maintain a substantial thickness of concrete (of which the blocks are made) about the rods I 5. Ribs i! are provided across the edge portions of the surface l6 between adjacent ribs 5. As is shown most clearly in the sectional view of Fig. 4, this provides a substantial thickness of concrete about the rods l5 between the ribs 5.

The corner construction illustrated in Fig. 1 employs both the inner corner block I and the outer corner block 2. In some instances, however, where it is desired to run a partition wall from a main or base wall, the inner corner blocks I only may be employed. Such a partition wall is shown in Fig. 5. In that figure the exterior surface of the base wall is formed of straight slabs 30 which, however, are provided on their rear faces with fins 3! to abut against the fins of the corner blocks l. The construction of the straight slabs 30 constitute the subject matter of my application Serial No. 682,607 hereinbefore referred to.

Grooves 36 are preferably formed in the top and bottom edges of the blocks, for receiving mortar or plastic for sealing the joints between successive courses.

I claim:

1. A precast corner structural unit comprising an integral body member consisting of two slab portions intersecting at right angles to define at their intersection a line, each slab portion having a front anda rear face and having formed on its rear face a pair of fins projecting therefrom, said fins extending the full width of the slabportions and being spaced from each other, and the outermost fin being spaced inwardly from the outer ends of the slab portions.

2. A precast corner structural unit compris- 7 ing an integral body member consisting of two slab portions intersecting at right angles to define ate-their intersection a line, each slab portion having a front and a rear face and having formed on its rear face a pair of fins projecting therefrom, said fins extending the full width of the 55 from the outer ends of the slab portions, and' reinforcing rods imbedded in said body member and extending longitudinally therethrough substantially parallel to said front vfaces, the ends of said rods extending from the rear faces of saidslab portions between said fins and the ends of the slabs. a

3. A precast corner structural unit comprising an integral body member consisting of two slab portions intersecting at right angles to define at their intersection a line, each slab portion having a front and a rear face and having formed on its rear face a pair of fins projecting therefrom, said fins extending the full width of the slab portions and being spaced from each other, the outermost fin being spaced inwardly from 5 the outer ends of the slab portions, and reinforcing rods imbedded in said body member and extending longitudinally therethrough substantially parallel to said front faces, the ends of said rods extending from the rear faces of said slab 10 portions between said fins and the ends of the slabs, each slab portion of said body member being relatively thick at points between the fins thereon and the intersection with the other slab portion, whereby said rods are'imbedded to a 15 substantial depth within those portions of the body member, and the outer end of each slab portion beyond the fins thereon being relatively thin whereby its rear surface is substantially in the plane of said rods, thereby permitting the ends 29 of said rods to 'be broken out of said rear surface.-

4. A precast corner structural unit comprising an integral body member consisting of two slab portions intersecting at right angles to define at their intersection a line, each slab portion having a front and a rear face and having formed on its rear face a pair of fins projecting therefrom, said fins extending the full width of the slab portions and being spaced from each other, the outermost fin being spaced inwardly from the outer ends of the slab portions, and reinforcing rods imbedded in said body member and. extending longitudinally therethrough substantially parallel to said front faces, the ends of said rods extending from the rear faces of said slab portions between said fins and the ends of the slab, each slab portion of said body member being relatively thick at points between the fins thereon and the intersection with the other slab portion, whereby said rods are imbedded to a substantial depth within those portions of the body member, and the outer end of each slab portion beyond the fins thereon being relatively thin whereby its rear surface is substantially in the plane of said rods, thereby permitting the ends of said rods to be broken out of said rear surface, and said slab portions having longitudinal ribs on their rear faces intermediate the two fins thereon and overlying said reinforcing rods whereby the latter are more deeply imbedded.

5. A wall corner construction comprising an inner and an outer structural unit placed in juxtaposed relation, the inner unit having a front face defining the inside corner line and adjacent inside surface of the wall and. the outer unit having a front face defining the outside corner line and adjacent outside surface of the wall, said units having rear faces spaced from each other to define passages therebetween and having cooperating fins projecting from said rear faces into intersection with each other for subdividing said passages whereby some of said subdivided passages may be filled with concrete to tie said units together and others of said passages may contain air to insulate said wall.

DONALD G. UNDERDOWN. 

